Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent

In the first reading we heard the words: Do not forget the things your eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart all the days of your life; rather tell them to your children and your children’s children.

There’s a scene in the film The Lion King in which the young lion, Simba, is visited by the ghost of his dead father and is told to remember where he comes from. Simba, who had been running from his role as the rightful king, is convinced by his father’s words to return home and overthrow his evil uncle, who has usurped the throne and is ruining the kingdom.

Memory is a powerful faculty. Day after day, moment after moment, we make decisions based upon our memories. We remember the way we were raised and draw on that for a sort of moral compass. Or we remember that the last time we treated someone unkindly, we received a harsh response, and so we rethink our strategies. Or we remember how good it felt to reach out and help someone in need, and we willingly do so again. Probably more than any other faculty, our memory forms the foundation for most of the things we do.

It’s vital that we invite the Holy Spirit into our memories so that we can experience his healing and strengthening touch. We must allow the Spirit to strip away hurt and anger from our memories and fill them with his love and mercy.

God wants to free our memories so that we can recall all the wonderful things he has promised in Scripture, and to let them become the foundation for our lives.